Loving the Standard/High Line

The Standard Hotel squats muscularly above and over the High Line, a former abandoned stretch of elevated train tracks cutting vertically through Chelsea. With the development of this much anticipated New York City Park came many prestigious commissions on neighboring properties. Ennead created an instant landmark in the meatpacking district, a destination to see and be seen from.

The relation between the hotel and park are not to be underrated. To enter the hotel, one must pass beneath flaneurs strolling or sunning above, and to gain access to the park from it’s southern entrance, one must walk in the shadow of the Standard. The success of both is intertwined with the other.

Diller Scofidio & Renfro transformed the former freight rail bridge into one of the City’s most recently beloved spaces, elevating the neighborhood literally. On summer nights, near dusk, a whispered pleasure amongst locals is spotting exhibitionists on display in the Standard’s floor-to-ceiling windows.